The “sticky wattle” or “weeping wattle” as it is sometimes known, is a favourite of bonsai people in Australia who are interested in growing Australian native plants/trees as bonsai. There is an outstanding example of this species as bonsai in the Australian Bonsai and Penjing Collection of Australia in Canberra and it is most popular when it is in flower, however it has something to offer all year round.

As part of the 2010 Goulburn Bonsai Exhibition I demonstrated on one of this species, it was trimmed, styled and re-potted.

The demonstration nearly over – October 2010

The tree was allowed to grow, flower and get the usual bonsai care of trimming, watering and fertilising over the next couple of years. It was even exhibited at the Goulburn Bonsai Society exhibition in 2012 as it had matured and grown well.

The wattle in February 2013

As can be seen in the above photo, this tree really needs re-potting and I fully intended to carry out that task in November 2013, but of course time got away from me and it missed its turn on the potting table.

With the natural growth of the root system it was pushing the tree up and out of the pot within a few months!

Pushing out of the pot in January 2014

You get a better look at the pot in this photo as I have just tidied up and trimmed the tree to maintain its shape. The pot is a one off original by Australian potter Lynn Smith and I think it really suits this tree. This is part of my theory of Aussie trees in Aussie made pots, but thats a story for another day.

That brings me to the real reason for this story, the tree flowered as it has done every year, but this time it also produced seed pods which was fantastic. Now, it could be that it produced seed pods because it is under stress from not getting a re-pot, or it could be that it is now mature enough to reproduce via seeds, in any case it was a great to see how Mother Nature proceeded through the process of flowers, to seed production.

Full and empty seed pods

A close-up of the seed pods

The seeds are quite small and I would think are easliy dispersed around the surrounding ground so new trees would germinate.

A pod, a couple of seeds and a match for size comparison

I didn’t have any plans to germinate the seed, but in retrospect maybe I should have?